Nothing Magic About The Way The Knights Play

Take a break. Take a night off. Go see a UCF basketball game. Go watch a team that plays hard, a team that fights, a team that cares.

Golden Knights Coach Kirk Speraw might even make it easy for you. He said Thursday he'd look into a suggestion that Magic season-ticket holders be allowed to attend a UCF game for free.

"Great idea," Speraw said. "I'm going to get our promotions department on that as soon as we get off the phone."

Said Gert Garman, head of UCF's athletic promotions: "I'll have to check with our compliance department, but if it's not against NCAA rules, we'd love for Magic fans to come see our team play."

Better yet, wouldn't you love for the Magic themselves to go see UCF play? They might learn something about camaraderie, about chemistry, about commitment. UCF (9-2) has played 25 fewer games but recorded one more victory than the Magic (8-28).

You want to know the difference between the Golden Knights and the Foldin' Magic? All you have to do is observe the coaches.

Magic Coach Johnny Davis after a recent game: "We just had a letdown in the effort department."

UCF's Speraw: "This team always leaves everything out on the floor."

Or listen to the fans.

I got this e-mail the other day from UCF student Christopher Wilson: "Our games are absolutely terrific. Our guys play their guts out."

And then this e-mail from Magic fan Andrew Dahmen: "It looks like the Magic are going through the motions again."

Oh, I know, UCF basketball isn't big-time; it's not ESPN. Sometimes, though, the best sports, like the best restaurants, are quaint and out-of-the-way. Give me a team that tries, a pep band that rocks -- and, man, those national championship UCF cheerleaders are worth the $6 ticket all by themselves. UCF's players may be short on glitz, but they're long on grit.

This is going to be a shock to you, Magic fans, but UCF actually plays something called --are you ready for this? -- defense. Let me see if I can explain this unique concept to you: You know how the Magic players, when they don't have the ball, like to stand around and let the other team score? Defense is when you make an effort to get in the other guy's way so as to impede his path to the basket.

The Magic have allowed opponents to score at least 60 points in the first half for five consecutive games. Meanwhile, UCF's conference opponents are averaging 59.2 points per game -- an entire game.

"Defense is something you have to take pride in," Speraw says. "You don't have to have great talent. You just have to play together, cover each other's backs and have some toughness. Some players just want to do the flashy things and don't want to commit to doing the tough things." (Sound familiar, Magic fans?)

It's hard not to root for a coach like Speraw, a no-nonsense tactician who, according to UCF sources, makes less money than the new football strength-and-conditioning coach. It's great that UCF is investing millions in new football Coach George O'Leary and his staff, but how about throwing Speraw a few shekels, too? This is a guy who won 21 games last year, a school record since the start of Division I play, and has kept UCF competitive over the past decade despite an embarrassingly inadequate recruiting budget and an administration that refuses to give him any sort of job security.

Contrary to published reports, heart and hustle isn't dead in Orlando; it's just being played 10 miles east of the TD Waterhouse Centre.